Product Strategy, website maintenance and development, UX
CLIENT CASE STUDY
1 STOP BUILDING
A long term partnership covering website renewal, general maintenance, and high end product development.
The Case Study in Brief
1 Stop Building is a construction company with an amalgamated 45+ years of experience. Keystone Foundry has worked with 1 Stop Building for over 10 years, creating high quality websites and maintaining it to the standards we set ourselves for every client.
Rather than treating each request as a standalone, Keystone Foundry has taken each into careful consideration alongside the rest of the website to ensure that each addition was implemented in the perfect place, and would stand alongside 1 Stop Building and their team.
We understand the importance of high end websites for businesses such as 1 Stop Building, and so we work alongside them to plan out what they want – creating trust, satisfaction and removing the confusion other businesses have with clients.
The Idea
A New Website, with New Features
After many years of running the website, it became outdated and the visual layout was falling behind its competitors – it was time for a much-needed revampification.
Alongside this, the team at 1 Stop Building wanted to give their clients an easier experience with their website – offering better support for them, and minimising time lost 1 Stop Building was using talking to potential clients who withdrew when the pricing was given.
1/ Website
Building the New 1 Stop Building Website
Keystone Foundry worked alongside 1 Stop Building to design a layout, and theme that they were content with before beginning to create the website itself – rather than using a pre-made template that wouldn’t fit the ideals of our client.
This meant understanding our clients consumer-base, and how they would benefit from this new website, and in areas possible removing any potential confusion, conflict, and other friction that could negatively affect 1 Stop Building and/or their customers.
We also gave references, and were shown ideas/themes that would fit an ideal new website that we have produced for them or other clients in the past for both the pages and also contact forms.
This results in a unique website, that’s simple to use, saves time for both the customer and 1 Stop Building and is aesthetically pleasing.
2/ Product Strategy and Development
Constructing a cost-estimator
1 Stop Building has been in the market for almost 10 years, and in this time there has been many potential customers who have pulled out of a consultation with 1 Stop Building as they receive the quote. This limits 1 Stop Building from finding other customers during this time, and feels wasteful on the customers’ side as sometimes the product they request, they want sooner rather than later.
So Keystone Foundry and 1 Stop Building came together, to design a cost estimator so customers know what they’re getting into before they spend too long consulting.
Therefore, we came up with this criteria:
| • Configurable building-cost estimator • Initially for house extensions and garage conversions but designed to be easily expandable • Combination of base cost per square metre and additional adjustments rather than relying on one hard-coded calculation • Configurable lower and upper rates per square metre per project type | • All config options stored as an administrative option, meaning they are easily configurable from the admin portal • Each project type stored as a post • Each configurable option stores two modifiers (lower and upper bound) to produce two different final costs as bound estimates • Final bounds calculated form base cost and area, with other configuration options (e.g. number of floors) |
And for the customers:
| • Project type: extension, garage conversion or another configured service. • Approximate floor area or dimensions. • Number of storeys. • Type of property and whether it is detached, semi-detached or terraced. | • The intended use of the completed space. • Specification level: basic, standard or premium. • Roof type and any significant structural requirements. • Number and type of external doors, windows, roof lights or bi-fold doors. |
| • Whether a kitchen, bathroom, utility room or other plumbing is required. • Heating, electrical and other service requirements. • Demolition or removal of existing structures. • Site access, parking and waste-removal restrictions. | • Known ground, drainage or foundation complications, with an “unknown” option. • Whether planning permission, building regulations, drawings or structural engineering are required. • Optional extras relevant to the selected project. |
For each selectable answer, the administrator should be able to define the label, help text, display order and pricing effect. A pricing effect should be configurable as a fixed addition, a price per square metre, a price per item, a percentage increase or decrease, or a multiplier. It should support both lower and upper values so the final result can remain a range.
Case Study Outcomes
The Result
1 Stop Building will have ongoing SEO, and IT maintenance – but the website and its price cost estimator are finalised.
This is a relationship that Keystone Foundry wants to build with each of its clients, no confusion, and an exact knowledge of what needs to be done.
1 Stop Building has gained a new, bespoke, website tailored to its uniqueness as a client – and will continue to gain money, time, and customers from its ease of use and estimator.
As it was designed to.
